MotoGP Mugello: Starting Grids

MotoGP

Dani Pedrosa will start the 2010 Gran Premio d’Italia TIM from pole position, his second of the season, after a superb late lap deposed current championship leader, Jorge Lorenzo, from the top of the timesheet.

"It’s great to take pole here," declared Pedrosa. "We’ve been working very hard through free practice and in qualifying this afternoon to improve things from yesterday. We’ve achieved this, so I’m satisfied. Lorenzo will be the man to beat tomorrow, but we are confident that we are in better shape than for the last race in Le Mans. I think it will be a fun race tomorrow."

Lorenzo had taken provisional pole position with ten minutes of the session remaining, becoming the first rider of the weekend to get under the 1’49" barrier by four-thousandths of a second, but Pedrosa’s effort means Lorenzo will go for his third straight win of the campaign from second position on the grid tomorrow.

"I am very happy about how my bike is feeling at Mugello," said Lorenzo. "I have a good race pace, the Bridgestone tyres feel good and I think I can make a fight tomorrow."

Joining the Spanish duo on the front row will be Casey Stoner, who overcame problems with his Ducati Desmosedici that have plagued him all weekend to jump up from ninth to third in the final moments of this afternoon’s qualifying session, knocking his team-mate, Nicky Hayden, back to the second row of the grid.

"I’d love to say we’re ready for the race tomorrow, but the reality is we’re far from it," explained Stoner. "It was a bit if a banzai lap in qualifying to be honest; we still need to find around six tenths if we are to be competitive with Jorge and Dani tomorrow. But, if we can find something in warm-up, then we could be in a good position."

Hayden will start alongside Colin Edwards and Randy de Puniet, who both enjoyed a positive qualifying session at a sun-drenched Mugello this afternoon.

Ben Spies will start his first MotoGP race at Mugello from seventh place, after an impressive weekend learning yet another new circuit, and Andrea Dovizioso will also be on the third row for his home race. Aleix Espargaró continued to improve on his satellite Pramac Ducati to claim ninth place, his best qualifying position to date, while another rookie, Hiroshi Aoyama, rounded out the top ten.

A notable absence from the session was Valentino Rossi. The reigning World Champion was taken to hospital earlier in the day after a crash in the morning practice, and will have an operation this evening on a fractured right tibia.

"I didn’t see Rossi’s crash, but what I’ve heard about the injury doesn’t sound good," said Pedrosa. "I just hope the operation goes well for him, because the first operation is always the most important."

MotoGP Start Positions

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time	Gap 1st/Prev.
1	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	329.3	1’48.819
2	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Fiat Yamaha Team	Yamaha	324.8	1’48.996	0.177 / 0.177
3	27	Casey STONER	AUS	Ducati Marlboro Team	Ducati	339.3	1’49.432	0.613 / 0.436
4	69	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Marlboro Team	Ducati	336.4	1’49.546	0.727 / 0.114
5	5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	323.9	1’49.683	0.864 / 0.137
6	14	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	LCR Honda MotoGP	Honda	323.9	1’49.737	0.918 / 0.054
7	11	Ben SPIES	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	320.4	1’49.861	1.042 / 0.124
8	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	327.3	1’50.065	1.246 / 0.204
9	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	335.2	1’50.168	1.349 / 0.103
10	7	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	Interwetten Honda MotoGP	Honda	330.4	1’50.224	1.405 / 0.056
11	58	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	327.1	1’50.434	1.615 / 0.210
12	65	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	322.8	1’50.479	1.660 / 0.045
13	40	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Paginas Amarillas Aspar	Ducati	341.2	1’50.561	1.742 / 0.082
14	33	Marco MELANDRI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	328.9	1’50.664	1.845 / 0.103
15	36	Mika KALLIO	FIN	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	338.5	1’50.970	2.151 / 0.306
16	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	324.7	1’53.243	4.424 / 2.273
	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Fiat Yamaha Team	Yamaha

Moto2

Andrea Iannone gave the home crowd something to cheer about at Mugello today, by taking pole position for the Moto2 race at the Italian circuit after a hectic qualifying session. Iannone’s lap of 1’55.598 secured him the fourth pole of his career – his first in the new intermediate category – by a margin of 0.260s.

Joining him on the front row will be current championship leader Toni Elías who put in a hot final lap of the session to rise to second, having been much further down the timesheet for most of practice and qualifying. Alex de Angelis and Jules Cluzel were separated by just five-hundredths of a second in third and fourth, as they completed the front row.

Shoya Tomizawa, who is lying second in the overall standings and 18 points off Elías going into tomorrow’s race, will lead the second row after setting the fifth best time, with Sergio Gadea, Gabor Talmacsi and Axel Pons also inside the top eight. Talmacsi had a fall towards the end of the session, which severely damaged his bike, but left the former 125cc World Champion uninjured

Thomas Lüthi and Julián Simón also set top-ten times, with the latter sliding out at the very end of the session but returning to his bike immediately.

Moto2 Start Positions

Mugello, Saturday, June 05, 2010

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time	Gap 1st/Prev.
1	29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Fimmco Speed Up	Speed Up	281.7	1’55.598
2	24	Toni ELIAS	SPA	Gresini Racing Moto2	Moriwaki	284.7	1’55.858	0.260 / 0.260
3	15	Alex DE ANGELIS	RSM	RSM Team Scot	Force GP210	273.6	1’56.222	0.624 / 0.364
4	16	Jules CLUZEL	FRA	Forward Racing	Suter	270.3	1’56.272	0.674 / 0.050
5	48	Shoya TOMIZAWA	JPN	Technomag-CIP	Suter	270.4	1’56.284	0.686 / 0.012
6	40	Sergio GADEA	SPA	Tenerife 40 Pons	Pons Kalex	277.2	1’56.296	0.698 / 0.012
7	2	Gabor TALMACSI	HUN	Fimmco Speed Up	Speed Up	278.7	1’56.305	0.707 / 0.009
8	80	Axel PONS	SPA	Tenerife 40 Pons	Pons Kalex	279.5	1’56.331	0.733 / 0.026
9	12	Thomas LUTHI	SWI	Interwetten Moriwaki Moto2	Moriwaki	279.6	1’56.339	0.741 / 0.008
10	60	Julian SIMON	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team	Suter	270.9	1’56.343	0.745 / 0.004
11	25	Alex BALDOLINI	ITA	Caretta Technology Race Dept	I.C.P.	273.6	1’56.388	0.790 / 0.045
12	55	Hector FAUBEL	SPA	Marc VDS Racing Team	Suter	275.4	1’56.443	0.845 / 0.055
13	19	Xavier SIMEON	BEL	Holiday Gym Racing	Moriwaki	275.8	1’56.466	0.868 / 0.023
14	35	Raffaele DE ROSA	ITA	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	278.4	1’56.543	0.945 / 0.077
15	6	Alex DEBON	SPA	Aeroport de Castello – Ajo	FTR	269.6	1’56.647	1.049 / 0.104
16	44	Roberto ROLFO	ITA	Italtrans S.T.R.	Suter	272.9	1’56.649	1.051 / 0.002
17	52	Lukas PESEK	CZE	Matteoni CP Racing	Moriwaki	280.4	1’56.652	1.054 / 0.003
18	41	Arne TODE	GER	Racing Team Germany	Suter	278.6	1’56.665	1.067 / 0.013
19	72	Yuki TAKAHASHI	JPN	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	273.6	1’56.716	1.118 / 0.051
20	17	Karel ABRAHAM	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	FTR	281.0	1’56.718	1.120 / 0.002
21	63	Mike DI MEGLIO	FRA	Mapfre Aspar Team	Suter	274.2	1’56.746	1.148 / 0.028
22	71	Claudio CORTI	ITA	Forward Racing	Suter	275.4	1’56.799	1.201 / 0.053
23	65	Stefan BRADL	GER	Viessmann Kiefer Racing	Suter	275.7	1’56.851	1.253 / 0.052
24	14	Ratthapark WILAIROT	THA	Thai Honda PTT Singha SAG	Bimota	270.9	1’56.888	1.290 / 0.037
25	75	Mattia PASINI	ITA	JIR Moto2	Motobi	279.4	1’56.897	1.299 / 0.009
26	3	Simone CORSI	ITA	JIR Moto2	Motobi	275.2	1’56.898	1.300 / 0.001
27	68	Yonny HERNANDEZ	COL	Blusens-STX	BQR-Moto2	273.3	1’56.911	1.313 / 0.013
28	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	Marc VDS Racing Team	Suter	284.9	1’57.049	1.451 / 0.138
29	77	Dominique AEGERTER	SWI	Technomag-CIP	Suter	273.4	1’57.380	1.782 / 0.331
30	61	Vladimir IVANOV	UKR	Gresini Racing Moto2	Moriwaki	284.6	1’57.392	1.794 / 0.012
31	59	Niccolo CANEPA	ITA	RSM Team Scot	Force GP210	272.7	1’57.400	1.802 / 0.008
32	39	Robertino PIETRI	VEN	Italtrans S.T.R.	Suter	276.9	1’57.455	1.857 / 0.055
33	9	Kenny NOYES	USA	Jack & Jones by A.Banderas	Promoharris	272.7	1’57.467	1.869 / 0.012
34	5	Joan OLIVE	SPA	Jack & Jones by A.Banderas	Promoharris	274.3	1’57.589	1.991 / 0.122
35	10	Fonsi NIETO	SPA	Holiday Gym G22	Moriwaki	272.1	1’57.690	2.092 / 0.101
36	76	Bernat MARTINEZ	SPA	Maquinza-SAG Team	Bimota	265.7	1’57.733	2.135 / 0.043
37	53	Valentin DEBISE	FRA	WTR San Marino Team	ADV	274.7	1’57.940	2.342 / 0.207
38	21	Vladimir LEONOV	RUS	Vector Kiefer Racing	Suter	269.7	1’58.247	2.649 / 0.307
39	8	Anthony WEST	AUS	MZ Racing Team	MZ-RE Honda	265.5	1’58.430	2.832 / 0.183
40	88	Yannick GUERRA	SPA	Holiday Gym G22	Moriwaki	267.3	1’58.467	2.869 / 0.037
41	96	Anthony DELHALLE	FRA	Blusens-STX	BQR-Moto2	271.9	1’58.701	3.103 / 0.234

125cc GP

Sandro Cortese will start tomorrow’s 125cc race from pole position, after stealing the number one slot on the grid from Pol Espargaró right at the end of this afternoon’s qualifying session. Espargaró was unable to respond, having crashed without injury with just ten minutes of the session left to run.

Bancaja Aspar team-mates Bradley Smith and current World Championship leader Nico Terol complete the front row, as both came within three-tenths of the top time.

Randy Krummenacher, Marc Márquez, Esteve Rabat and Efrén Vázquez will all be present on the second row after good qualification performances, although Vázquez experienced a fall at the very end of the session.

Johann Zarco and Tomoyoshi Koyama were inside the top ten, with British rider Danny Webb 13th. There were crashes for Adrián Martín and Luigi Morciano.

125cc GP Start Positions

Mugello, Saturday, June 05, 2010

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time	Gap 1st/Prev.
1	11	Sandro CORTESE	GER	Avant Mitsubishi Ajo	Derbi	233.0	1’58.315
2	44	Pol ESPARGARO	SPA	Tuenti Racing	Derbi	234.2	1’58.336	0.021 / 0.021
3	38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Bancaja Aspar Team	Aprilia	234.0	1’58.572	0.257 / 0.236
4	40	Nicolas TEROL	SPA	Bancaja Aspar Team	Aprilia	237.6	1’58.586	0.271 / 0.014
5	35	Randy KRUMMENACHER	SWI	Stipa-Molenaar Racing GP	Aprilia	232.3	1’58.682	0.367 / 0.096
6	93	Marc MARQUEZ	SPA	Red Bull Ajo Motorsport	Derbi	234.9	1’58.705	0.390 / 0.023
7	12	Esteve RABAT	SPA	Blusens-STX	Aprilia	238.0	1’59.177	0.862 / 0.472
8	7	Efren VAZQUEZ	SPA	Tuenti Racing	Derbi	232.2	1’59.341	1.026 / 0.164
9	14	Johann ZARCO	FRA	WTR San Marino Team	Aprilia	236.1	1’59.617	1.302 / 0.276
10	71	Tomoyoshi KOYAMA	JPN	Racing Team Germany	Aprilia	241.1	1’59.692	1.377 / 0.075
11	53	Jasper IWEMA	NED	CBC Corse	Aprilia	233.8	1’59.809	1.494 / 0.117
12	39	Luis SALOM	SPA	Stipa-Molenaar Racing GP	Aprilia	238.0	2’00.052	1.737 / 0.243
13	99	Danny WEBB	GBR	Andalucia Cajasol	Aprilia	240.2	2’00.131	1.816 / 0.079
14	23	Alberto MONCAYO	SPA	Andalucia Cajasol	Aprilia	236.4	2’00.559	2.244 / 0.428
15	95	Alessandro TONUCCI	ITA	Junior GP Racing Team FMI	Aprilia	219.8	2’00.774	2.459 / 0.215
16	92	Luigi MORCIANO	ITA	Junior GP Racing Team FMI	Aprilia	234.3	2’00.890	2.575 / 0.116
17	5	Alexis MASBOU	FRA	Ongetta Team	Aprilia	227.4	2’01.300	2.985 / 0.410
18	78	Marcel SCHROTTER	GER	Interwetten Honda 125	Honda	236.7	2’01.312	2.997 / 0.012
19	50	Sturla FAGERHAUG	NOR	AirAsia – Sepang Int. Circuit	Aprilia	229.8	2’01.351	3.036 / 0.039
20	15	Simone GROTZKYJ	ITA	Fontana Racing	Aprilia	229.6	2’01.589	3.274 / 0.238
21	84	Jakub KORNFEIL	CZE	Racing Team Germany	Aprilia	228.3	2’01.683	3.368 / 0.094
22	51	Riccardo MORETTI	ITA	Junior GP FMI	Aprilia	224.0	2’01.797	3.482 / 0.114
23	94	Jonas FOLGER	GER	Ongetta Team	Aprilia	223.8	2’01.868	3.553 / 0.071
24	96	Tommaso GABRIELLI	ITA	Racing Team Gabrielli	Aprilia	226.9	2’01.898	3.583 / 0.030
25	32	Lorenzo SAVADORI	ITA	Matteoni CP Racing	Aprilia	219.9	2’02.243	3.928 / 0.345
26	98	Mattia TAROZZI	ITA	Faenza Racing	Aprilia	233.0	2’02.417	4.102 / 0.174
27	63	Zulfahmi KHAIRUDDIN	MAL	AirAsia – Sepang Int. Circuit	Aprilia	225.9	2’02.586	4.271 / 0.169
28	97	Armando PONTONE	ITA	Junior GP Racing Team FMI	Aprilia	215.7	2’02.763	4.448 / 0.177
29	60	Michael VAN DER MARK	NED	Lambretta Reparto Corse	Lambretta	220.9	2’03.114	4.799 / 0.351
30	87	Luca MARCONI	ITA	Ongetta Team	Aprilia	234.3	2’03.245	4.930 / 0.131
31	69	Louis ROSSI	FRA	CBC Corse	Aprilia	224.9	2’03.864	5.549 / 0.619
32	72	Marco RAVAIOLI	ITA	Lambretta Reparto Corse	Lambretta	211.3	2’06.126	7.811 / 2.262
	26	Adrian MARTIN	SPA	Aeroport de Castello – Ajo	Aprilia	193.3	2’21.695	23.380 / 15.56